


A Gold By Any Other Name

by CharmingMonsters



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Attempt at Humor, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Grand Prix Final Banquet, ISU Shenanigans, M/M, Pre-Canon, very light angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 15:24:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15799287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharmingMonsters/pseuds/CharmingMonsters
Summary: Five times Victor Nikiforov’s name was misspelled on his Grand Prix Final Gold Medal + one time he made sure it wasn’t.





	A Gold By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a true story.

1. 

Winning the Grand Prix Final for the first time was a whirlwind like nothing Victor had experienced before. The press, the fans, the accolades: everything was so much bigger than it had been for his silvers and bronzes, for the golds he’d won in juniors. Victor felt like he was flying, suffused with a bright, giddy happiness that made it hard to sleep and even harder to focus.

Which is why he didn’t notice, until he was back in his dingy St. Petersburgh flat, that they’d spelled his last name “Nikifarov” in the engraving on the back.

Yakov tells him that it’s a simple mistake, not worth the political fallout with the ISU if they make a fuss, and offers to have it fixed by a local jeweler. Victor tells him not to bother. He’s going to get more, after all.

 

2.

Winning the Grand Prix Final for the second time is only slightly less exhilarating. The triumph of being among the rare back-to-back champions was amazing; sitting so far ahead on the scoreboard wasn’t. He’d managed a clean program, and it felt a bit strange to look out from the podium and realize how many mistakes he could have made without risking his spot.

Victor’s still wearing his gold at the banquet afterparty when little Christophe Giacometti – all grown up now – uses the ribbon to pull him out onto the balcony.

“It’s cold out here!” he whines.

“Then let me warm you up,” purrs Christophe, pressing Victor’s back against the metal railing and lifting the gold to his lips. “I’ll start with this, Mister… Niliforov?”

Chris starts laughing as Victor stares at the medal in shock. Sure enough, those idiots have done it again.

 

3.

Victor is at the airport lounge post-GPF, finally past the hassle of check-in and the annoying routine where he smiles and pretends he doesn’t mind as the security agents try on his medal, when a fan comment on Instagram catches his eye. He’d posted the selfie from the cab, smiling champion with his latest trophy en route to catch another glamorous international flight. His publicist loves it when he shares photos like that. Victor used to love taking photos like that. He’s not quite sure when they started to get boring.

Boredom meant he hadn't been paying attention to what side of the medal was aimed at the camera.

_> Viktor? I thought you spelled your name with a C!_

The gold’s in the front pouch of his carry-on, where he can keep an eye on it. He only needs a second to pull it out and yep, there it is.

"Viktor Nikiforov".

He sighs, and decides he deserves a pre-flight drink.

 

4.

Four consecutive wins at the Grand Prix Final is historic, and the ISU has bungled the last three medals, so when Victor shows up at the banquet with his freshly-engraved gold, Yakov flips it over to check.

"Victor Nikiiforov".

Victor can only laugh when his coach shows him the mistake. At this point, it’s taken on the tenor of a cosmic joke.

Yakov, who has less of a sense of humor than Victor about most things, especially ones relating to his star pupil, drags both Victor and the medal over to the ISU head to complain.

“Ah, yes, that is most unfortunate, Mr. Feltsman,” says the official, false sympathy lacing his words. “But the ISU does not have a policy of correcting such matters. You’re of course welcome to have the engraving fixed yourself…”

Victor has heard his coach yell at many people during their long years together: Victor, Victor’s rinkmates, Victor’s dog (just the once), the press, the FFKK, the Zamboni operator at the Sports Champions Club, the security guards at the Sports Champions Club, a dozen Aeroflot employees and the bartender who tried to serve him flavored vodka that one time in Paris.

He has never, before now, heard his coach yell at the head of the ISU.

The shouting match doesn’t last long. Victor intervenes when he notices the official’s face turning an unfortunate shade of purple. He’s going to have a hard time at Worlds if his coach gets himself permanently barred from ISU events for inappropriate behavior, after all.

Yakov flies back to Russia with an official letter of sanction from the ISU and an appointment with his doctor to check his blood pressure.

Victor flies home with a re-engraved gold medal featuring one oddly thick letter “i”.

 

5.

Victor goes through the motions of checking the spelling on his engraved medal when the ISU hands it back to him at the start of the banquet.

It's wrong. Of course it's wrong.

He doesn’t bother to say anything. Yakov’s blood pressure isn’t getting any better, and Victor can't bring himself to care. The medal’s just there so that sponsors who ignored the competition itself know which skaters to target. Two hours later, his face hurts from forcing a smile for so long. He wonders if Yakov will notice if he snags a third glass of champagne. His sponsor duties are done, but he still needs to mingle with the other skaters and ISU staff. It wouldn’t do for people to get the idea that the five-time champion has developed an ego, even if his banquet conversations with other skaters mostly consist of awed stuttering and poorly-concealed jealousy.

There’s some commotion out on the dance floor. His junior rinkmate is thrashing around wildly, kicking up nonsense with a dark-haired man. Yakov’s engaged in a terse discussion with his wife off to the side, so Victor plucks a passing flute and drifts over to see what’s happening.

Madness is happening. Glorious, bacchanal madness led by a dark-eyed satyr who smiles like the sun and moves like temptation made flesh.

As his rinkmate slinks away, grumbling in defeat, the dancefloor fae turns his attention to the crowd. His eyes, wide and dark like the midnight sky, fix on Victor. A smirk appears on those sunshine lips, and he prowls across the room, Victor fixed to the spot like willing prey.

“Hello,” Victor manages, as the vision stops before him.

“I’m Yuuri,” the satyr slurs, his English laden with an accent that runs down Victor’s spine like warm honey. “You didn’t know that earlier.”

“I do now," he replies. "Yuuri."

His reward is a pink flush of pleasure across his satyr’s already-bright face as Victor says his name.

Before Victor can say more, try to win that prize again, Yuuri reaches out and grasps the ribbon around his neck, tugging him in close. Victor has never been happier to surrender. He watches in delight as the man lifts his medal, dangling the golden orb between them.

“You should probably take this off if you're going to dance with… wait, Nikiforv?” Yuuri pulls up short, the bacchanal dispelled by his sudden seriousness. “They spelled your name wrong? Victor, we have to fix this right now!”

Victor shakes his head, slipping the medal’s ribbon over his silver locks. He glances around, spotting his rinkmate Mila, and holds the medal out towards her. She takes it with a side glance towards Yuuri and a cheerful wink. 

“It’s nothing,” says Victor, keeping his focus to the man before him, this man who sparks of magic and myth. “Nothing that matters, anyway.”

 

\+ 1

Victor insists on accompanying both their medals to the engraving studio, even though he is supposed to be at a press conference.

“My husband can answer for us both,” he says when the ISU wanted to know why. “Besides, this one matters. You're getting it right.”

He keeps careful watch as the jeweler etches two smooth metal surfaces, gold and silver, with the same last name.

[Instagram post by @v_nikiforov. Image: five gold medals from the Grand Prix Final arranged in a circle around a single silver medal from the same competition. All medals are showing their backs. Each one is engraved with a different name; the silver is marked "Victor Katsuki-Nikiforov".

Caption by @v_nikiforov: The right name on silver means more than all the gold in the world <3

#gpf #realgold #myhusbandisthebesthusband ]

 

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by Jacques Plante, the Montreal Canadiens goalie who won five consecutive Stanley Cups (1956-60) only to have the NHL misspell his name on the cup engraving every single time. They even made different spelling mistakes each year! On top of that, the NHL had a policy at the time of not fixing incorrect engravings, so the error stands to this very day.
> 
> I researched but could not find any information about whether figure skating medals are engraved with the winner’s names. I don’t think they are, but I needed them to be for the purposes of this fic, so tah-dah, the ISU has them engraved between the medal ceremony and the closing banquet, where they are returned to the winners. 
> 
> If anyone knows how this works in reality, please tell me in the comments, because I’m really curious now!
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](https://charming-yuri.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/charmingmonstrs) too!


End file.
